Fue hair transplant

i recently had a fue hair transplant. I went to several dr before i did the procedure and on the inital consultation with all of them they said i can have 2000 grafts for coverage and it should be okay.

I get into surgery having had the head shaved and the hair ready to move to the new balding area and the surgeon who i havent met comes in and says that i have FPB and i shouldnt really do this fue it wont make much difference - well it is too late i cant tell you how i felt! He said he did what he could do but in reality i needed over 6000 grafts of which the donor hair doesnt have.

Research yes it works but what do i do now i have had the surgery i just hope that the hair does stick into the new follicle area and that it grows that is all i pray for - i was devestated!

Effectively i dont have enough hair for HT and i should have just started wearing a wig - what else can i do now?

It's impossible to tell without seeing before and after pictures whether you received enough grafts to give you a satisfactory result. 2000 grafts can make a lot of difference to a case of diffuse hairloss though, depending on just how great the loss of density had been and whether permanent shockloss of native hair has been avoided. I hope your estimate for needing 6000 grafts is totally wrong.

If you only met the surgeon when he entered to perform the surgery then that's a sign that he's probably not on any of the unofficial lists of recommended transplant doctors. That doesn't mean that he is incompetent though. You might be thrilled with your result. Having chosen FUE, though, means that you won't display much if any scarring or glaring effects of surgery. I hope you come back and let us know how it goes.

Last edited by mattj; 01-18-2011 at 09:53 AM.

I am a representative and patient advisor for Dr Rahal. All opinions are my own.

Follicular Unit Transplantation and Follicular Unit Extraction are sometimes viewed as being two totally different procedures. FUE, in fact, is a type of FUT where the follicular units are extracted directly from the scalp, rather than being microscopically dissected from a strip that has already been removed. To say it another way, in Follicular Unit Transplantation, individual follicular units can be obtained in one of two ways; either through single-strip harvesting and stereo-microscopic dissection, or through FUE.

Therefore, when comparisons are made between FUT and FUE, what is really being compared is the way the follicular grafts are obtained (i.e. strip harvesting and dissection vs. direct extraction) rather than placed into the scalp. However, the harvesting method does have implications for the procedure such as the transection (damage) rate, distribution of follicular units, number of grafts per session, post-op care and the total graft yield.

Because FUE does not leave a linear scar, it may be appropriate for patients who want to wear their hair very short. The procedure is also useful for those who have healed poorly from traditional strip harvesting or who have a very tight scalp. Possibly the most important application of this technique is to camouflage a widened linear donor scar from a prior hair transplant procedure. In this technique, hair is extracted from the area around a linear donor scar and then placed directly into it.

Patients differ significantly with respect to the ease in which follicular units can be removed from the scalp. In some patients, extraction results in unacceptable levels of transaction (damage due to cut hair follicles). Patients considering FUE should be tested for ease of extraction (the FOX Test) so that those in whom extraction is difficult, or who show significant degrees of transaction, can be identified in advance.

Fue

You brave woman! I've had hair loss myself but would not have the guts to shave my head...

FUE works, though. I do find that my female patients use more hair transplants in order to get a more satisfying density, so you might go for a second round of either FUE OR a strip procedure at that time. Just be patient to see your results and take a deep breath - all is not lost! I think it is probably a sign that you had a good surgeon who was willing to tell you some bad news, and in the future you should definitely meet with the doc in advance.

Let us know how you do! I'd be interested in seeing how your story ends. Good luck!

Honestly, women feel better moving even 100 grafts to the top when they are loosing hair. FUE is a great way to go when you have only a small number of FU to move.

It's really a shame that you shaved your head. It was totally unnecessary and shows your physician had no idea what the standard of care was for FUE today. No one needs to shave their head for this procedure. Few physicians seem to recognize this and even fewer pass this information on to their patients. i have no idea why they don't pass it on, but the two words greed or ignorance come to mind.

If you don't want to shave your head, insist that your physician do a non-shaven procedure. if the physician does not know how to do it, refer them to me. Frankly, i find what happened to you nothing short of appalling. i'm very much disturbed about what you went through. It was completely unnecessary and something i've been teaching for over 7 years.